Journaling Tips and Traps

            
             Flipping through the completed pages in your scrapbook albums, do you see page after page of photos accompanied by basic, explanatory writing? Do your scrapbooks truly capture the essence of what you want to say? Are the photos and embellishments creative and fun while the journaling seems a bit dull and poorly executed? In an ideal world, scrapbookers would have as much fun doing .
             Journaling as they do decorating their layouts. Without meaningful journaling, .
             Our scrapbooks are nothing more than decorative photo albums. Put your mind.
             at ease "you don't have to start writing more words on every page and using fewer embellishments. The decorative aspect is equally important. But you can have just as much fun and be just as creative with your journaling as with the rest of your layout. .
             Following are some common Journaling Traps that you should try to avoid:.
             1. The "Bare Bones" journaling trap "listing only the who, what, where and when.
             2. The "Glossy" journaling trap "making every person, every event, everything in your scrapbooks give the impression that you live in a perfect, fairy-tale world.
             3. The "Canned" journaling trap "using the same phrases and thoughtless expressions over and over (ex. "We had a good time" or "Here we are at.").
             4. The "Duh!" journaling trap "stating what it obvious from looking at the photo.
             5. The "Yawn" journaling trap "using lengthy paragraphs that may find the reader nodding off.
             6. The "Invisible" journaling trap "No journaling at all visible on the page.
             Some remedies: Use your senses. Document the nitty-gritty and the not-so-perfect happenings too. Did it rain? Were you upset or disappointed? Don't be afraid to include the sorrows as well as the joys of your family's life "be real! When we document how things went wrong and how we worked through it, we learn from the experience. Go behind the scenes of the photo "what was happening around the subject of the photo while the photo was being taken? What fun and exciting things did the photographer miss? For further fun, try using "top 10" style lists.